Jewish Coalition Opposes Prop. 187

Citing the specter of totalitarianism, representatives of a Jewish coalition formed to fight Proposition 187 said Tuesday that the state ballot initiative unfairly targets children and would turn tens of thousands of adults into government informants.

“This is a vicious and cruel proposition,” said Rabbi Harold M. Schulweiss, leader of Encino’s Valley Beth Shalom and a member of the Jewish Community Coalition Against Proposition 187, the ballot measure aimed at curbing illegal immigration.

The community coalition is said to include congregations representing more than 3,300 San Fernando Valley families, as well as regional Jewish organizations representing another 50,000 families throughout Southern California.

Schulweiss told a news conference that he hopes the coalition will convince the Jewish community, as well as others, that Proposition 187 would fail to address problems of illegal immigration.

Instead, Schulweiss said, it would hurt many children by denying them an education and routine medical care.

Proposition 187, if approved by voters in November, would allow public schooling, non-emergency medical care and other government services only to those who can prove they are living in the United States legally. In addition, it would require school officials, police and health care workers to report to authorities anyone they believe might be an illegal immigrant.

“It makes informants out of all of us,” Schulweiss said.

Another coalition member, Tzivia Schwartz, said: “The comparison is to the experience the Jewish community had in Europe, where being suspected of being Jewish was grounds for all kinds of horrible things.”

The initiative is drawing upon a growing xenophobia, a fear of new immigrant families that has even spread among the normally tolerant Jewish community, said Rabbi Jim Kaufman of Temple Beth Hillel in North Hollywood.

“Some are saying, ‘I feel I want to vote yes, and I feel it is unJewish,’ ” Kaufman said. Rejecting newcomers, especially those in need, is so common--so human--that the Bible prohibits the practice more than two dozen times, he said. “The Bible acknowledges the feelings, but says we should not act upon those feelings.”

Both men said laws directed at minorities within a community are traditionally opposed by Jews, who have been the target of similar discrimination throughout their history.

While acknowledging that U. S. border authorities ought to control the flow of immigration, attacking those already living in California, especially children of immigrants, is morally indefensible, Schulweiss said.

The same arguments used by supporters of 187--that illegal immigration is solely a legal issue, that there is no more room or money--was used when U. S. authorities refused port entry to the St. Louis, a ship carrying 937 Jews seeking escape from Nazi Germany in August, 1939, Schulweiss said.

“Ethics cost,” he said, noting that many of the passengers later died in Nazi concentration camps.

Ron Prince, chairman of the pro-187 campaign, said he does not believe that religious figures ought to criticize supporters of 187 on moral grounds.

“In this country, we have separation of church and state, and we have to look at political issues without acrimony,” he said. “This is a legal and, now, a political issue.”